Introduction to Gulp.js

Tutorial

These are the files for my series Introduction to Gulp.js published on my website stefanimhoff.de.

Tutorial Overview

1. Intro and Setup
2. Server with BrowserSync and Configuration
3. Build, Clean and Jekyll
4. Creating CSS with Sass (and Compass)
5. Bundling JavaScript with Browserify
6. Images and Vector Fonts
7. Base64 Encoded Images
8. Watch for Changes
9. Checking the Syntax of SCSS and JavaScript
10. Generating CSS Image Sprites
11. Production Build, Server and Jekyll
12. Optimize CSS, JavaScript, Images and HTML
13. Revisioning
14. Deploying the Website with Rsync
15. Performance Improvements with WebP and Gzip
16. PostCSS

Preparation

Install nvm and node:

$ git clone https://github.com/creationix/nvm.git ~/.nvm
$ cd ~/.nvm
$ git checkout `git describe --abbrev=0 --tags`

$ export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm/"
$ [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm

nvm install 6.3.1

If you like install yarn, I provide a yarn.lock file:

brew install yarn

Install bundler:

$ gem install bundler

Install bower:

$ npm install -g bower

Installation

Clone the repository on your computer and change into the projects folder. Run:

$ bundle
$ bower install
$ npm install

To install Fontcustom you should have Homebrew installed or use another package management tool to install the dependencies:

$ brew install fontforge --with-python
$ brew install eot-utils

Setup

Open gulp/config.js and change settings if needed. Only the rsync settings need to be adjusted. Change the destination to a path on your webserver and change hostname and username.

Running Gulp.js

Three tasks are available (npm works, too):

$ yarn start
$ yarn run publish
$ yarn run deploy

• Running yarn start will start a development server, build assets and the Jekyll site and start a watch task.
• Running yarn run publish will copy and optimize assets and run a production build of Jekyll.
• Running yarn run deploy will copy the generated files with Rsync to your server.

Sass, Compass or PostCSS

The current version of this tutorial uses PostCSS. If you would like to use Sass (or Compass), you can still easily access the old code in the branch ruby-sass. The new code at the time I wrote the article is available in the branch postcss. Additionally I merge it into master and will process with PostCSS in my tutorial.

Credits

This tutorial includes some files for demonstation purposes:

• The Gulp.js logo used as image example
• The pattern Light gray by Brenda Lay, published on Subtle Patterns
• The SVGs and PNGs are take from the IcoMoon Icon Pack.